The promotions of Onir’s upcoming film Shab are going on in full flow and while it’s quite common to interview the
cast and the director, A Potpourri of Vestiges, owing to our commitment to make
our readers get a better insight into the filmmaking process, requested the
marketing team of Shab to arrange for an interactive session with the movie’s Production
Designer Dhanya Pilo and fortunately they obliged and arranged for the same
just like they had made the arrangements for detailed discussions with the Line
Producer Ajay Govind, Composer
Shashwat Srivastava, Editor
Irene Dhar, and Lyricist
Amitabh Verma. During the exclusive interview, Dhanya not only shared her experience
of working with Onir but she also gave valuable insights into the process
involved while highlighting the various challenges she faced during the
different phases of the movie’s shoot in Delhi. Shab is set to release this
Friday i.e. 14 July 2017.

Excerpts

1. Tell us about the experience of working with Onir on Shab.
What was the brief shared by Onir?

Onir had a very
simple brief - “Imagine Delhi at night in different seasons, fashion, art & food” and I have always had a lovely time in Delhi so I was happy to work on
this project to help Onir showcase this inner beauty of Delhi - which most of
Mumbaites have a reluctance and fear towards. I wanted people to see Delhi in
another avatar than the usual convenient negative stereotypes that it is tagged
as. Delhi has so much more history and a distinct difference in
lifestyle.I must warn you
that shooting a film in Delhi is much tougher than doing so in Mumbai for all
departments. We get so used to the filmy resourcefulness of Mumbai that one
tends to suddenly praise the efficiency of the Bollywood working systems - like
rental shops and prop shops when you are shooting a feature film in Delhi. But
then again running the art department of a film in a city like Delhi provided
me with a whole new palette of colors, moods and textures. Delhi is special. So
is Onir’s film - Shab.

2. Tell us about the process you followed. Was it different from
your other films?

Yes, definitely, Onir
had a distinct sense of economy to what is required in a scene to make it
effective - which is really helpful for the design team when we are working
with low budgets - and I have immense respect for him for that specific aspect
of filmmaking.

Onir gives you the
freedom as a Designer to bring in the required context for a feel of reality,
as well as precise storyboarding to give the entire crew a clear shot break
down well ahead in time - so there is no space for any confusion. We were
working towards showing a side of Delhi which is not visible or experienced by
many, so we are hoping to show a variety of parallel lives that makes up each
city. That required a meticulous planning of the spaces inhabited and occupied
by different characters of Shab. Shooting mainly at night came with its own
sense of excitement and limitations - the bustling city of Delhi becomes quiet
at night.

For each location
and character of the film I designed different mood boards by defining the colors,
textures, objects, activities, local culture, food, plating, vehicles and personalized
items which help build mini stories in each scene. The different seasons had to
have a distinct feel, without standing out loud, and that can only be achieved
with a gentle balance of lighting, color and textures of indoor/outdoor spaces.

3. The film is shot across different locations within South
Delhi. How did you maintain a distinct look and character for each?

We shot in Hauz Khas,
Anand Lok, Paharganj, Gurgaon, Noida, Pritampura, ISBT etc etc - we were all
over the city. Each part of delhi has a distinct look and culture and we tried
to highlight how that changes every character that walks into it. Do different
spaces alienate different people differently? - Yes. The city reacts to new and
old people differently you might get pushed around or it might accept you as
you are. A lot of the venues were real locations that we propped and dressed to
fit the mood of the film while creating different corners of the city for each
of the characters of Shab. But we would revisit and shoot them over different
times of the year. Creating mood boards is the easiest way to define each character
and each item in the film has been carefully designed and placed to help the
audience relate to the character better.

To show Delhi in a
different light, we picked and emphasized on the important characteristics of
each season and how it changes the interaction in the area whether it was what
people were wearing or eating etc. It was an exercise to retell the same story
in a different weather conditions, different lighting, different decorations,
accessories and different moods of the characters due to different festivals
that affect all our Indian lives such as Diwali, Christmas, Independence Day,
etc.

4. Shab has been shot across different seasons in Delhi.
Anything special you had to keep in mind while devising the production design?

We actually shot
over 4 schedules to be as true to the different seasons that Delhi has. The
tricky part of shooting a film over such a spread out schedule is that one has
to be very careful with continuity aspects of the real locations - which meant
a lot of heavy documentation, referencing and local co-ordination.

Onir had instructed
me to use five distinct tools while designing the film - fashion, art, food,
weather and darkness - so my work involved in bringing bits of those aspects in
every scene and that makes the film look - layered and interesting. We began
with detailing the cafe’s branding, food to even small personal motifs of each
character like Neil’s cupid hanging on his car mirror to all the expensive home
decor in Raveena’s house. Winter just made Delhi look so beautiful, I will not
take credit for that. This film was mainly shot post 7.30 PM all the
way up till dawn and lighting fixtures played a very important role - so we had
to source and make a variety of lamps as well as lighting installations.
Between Onir, Sachin and me - we had defined specific color palettes for each character
for example natural blue with a lot of green plants for Neil’s Cafe and house,
Rich sexy Red for Sonal Modi (Raveena), etc.

Afzar’s house for
example overlooks the Delhi metro reflecting the new fast paced life of Delhi,
in a crumbling neighborhood and his small terrace flat shadows the upcoming
mobile model with a sense of tacky cool, male pride - doing a mix and match of
high art meets assumed design. Afzar’s house is the only one in the film with
white lighting (tubelight) bringing out the unnaturalness of his new found
lifestyle and how he is unconsciously alienated in this current predicament. He
is visibly uncomfortable in his new house but trying to desperately fit in.

5. Given the tight budget how did you manage to create the
extravagant look of the film, especially with regards to the high profile
fashion world portrayed in film required?

The budgets were really tight so we
worked with a small Art/Design team, as well as local sourcing and improvising
in every new location. Since Delhi didn’t have too many options for rental
agencies we were mostly borrowing different objects/showpieces from Delhi based
friends of crew & family while improvising, purchasing & getting things
made specifically. Sanjay and Onir’s goodwill in the Delhi circle was a great
support system for the film as we were able to effectively accessorize the film
with very expensive and value able wall hangings, furniture, decor, cutlery,
etc. Also having my artist and architect friends in Delhi giving me leads was
really helpful to create the rich feel seen in the film. Shooting at the Westin
hotel and private dining rooms of the Radisson Blu, 5 star poolsides, expensive
restaurants in Qutub, bungalows in Chattarpur along with fine expensive
accessories, light fixtures, flowers, cutlery and linen all helped to create
the mood of the film with contrast to the humble homes the other characters
lived in. Raveena herself comes in with so much style and Wendell Rodricks
brings in the authenticity of the high profile fashion world.

The film also holds
a variety of very large and expensive art works from contemporary Indian
Artists - from the private collection of Art Curator Myna Mukherjee who was
very gracious to lend us some art works - helping us create a richer and
interwoven film space. The design team was studying a range of photographs from
old Gladrags model hunt contests to contemporary French cooking styles and
cafes’, talking to chefs to give that authentic styling. Delhi has a huge food
culture and for Neil’s Cafe schedules of the film we would have a
special team in the kitchen prepare different menus - food and drinks to be
served to actors as well as the background actors in the scene - it was so much
fun.What I really like
about Onir’s process is the efficiency of shot break down, the clearness, and
concise instructions to each person on the team which keeps all the departments
in sync. I wish Onir a successful film release.

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Murtaza Ali Khan is an independent film critic / journalist based out of New Delhi, India. He has been writing on cinema for over seven years. He runs the award-winning entertainment blog A Potpourri of Vestiges. He is also the Films Editor at the New York City-based publication Cafe Dissensus and regularly contributes to The Hindu and The Sunday Guardian. He was previously a columnist at Huff Post. He has also contributed to publications like DailyO, Newslaundry, The Quint, Dear Cinema, Desimartini and Jamuura Blog. He regularly appears as a guest panelist on the various television channels and is also associated with radio.